Fighting for Migrant Labor Rights in the World's Factory: legitimacy,resource constraints and strategies of grassroots migrant labor NGOs in South China

China's dizzying economic achievement is not mirrored in its labor rights protection record. Migrant workers in particular do not enjoy rights commensurate with their contribution to the economy. The pervasive infringement of labor rights and the failure of the official protective system have jointly created a niche for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). This article investigates the grassroots migrant labor NGOs in the Pearl River Delta region, an area which has seen unprecedented increases in labor disputes both in terms of quantity and intensity. Making extensive use of in-depth interviews and participatory observations, it examines the strategies and tactics NGOs use for survival and growth in a hostile external environment. This article reveals that administrative illegitimacy and resource shortage have been the two key challenges for grassroots NGOs; in order to survive, they have developed a series of strategies to enhance legitimacy and explore resources. In the meantime, however, antagonistic thinking still drives the government's response to grassroots organizations unless the latter can skillfully balance political ideology and actual operation. Yet, overall, most NGOs still managed to survive despite various difficulties. Reciprocity and mutual trust are of critical importance to peaceful coexistence, if not cooperation, between the state and the grassroots. The building of long-term healthy labor relations in China necessitates more liberal thinking and collaborative governance.     

The Evolution of Civil Society in Yunnan Province: contending models of civil society management in China

This article examines the evolution of the Yunnan model of civil society management, and through a pretest–posttest research design, finds that new regulations in 2010 create a larger role for the local state in developing civil society. These changes bring the Yunnan model closer to the more supervised model of social management pioneered by Beijing and away from the more autonomous model exemplified by Guangdong. This has important implications for the future regulation and development of civil society as the central government debates adopting one of these models as a national system of social management. While both the Guangdong and Beijing models encourage relaxing registration requirements, the social management model in Yunnan develops new channels for state guidance of civil society such as government training, funding, and project collaboration or supervision.     

NGO在公共卫生服务中的角色分析

公共卫生服务是公共服务的内容之一。虽然公共卫生服务主要是政府的职责,但也是可以通过多种组织形态来提供的。本文分析了国家级NGO参与公共卫生项目的数量、比例和领域,提出了公共卫生服务中NGO的补充角色及其具体体现,包括在人力资源、资金、特殊领域和内容、特殊地区和人群以及服务模式探索等方面的补充作用,并从筹资和服务两个方面总结了NGO参与的方式。基于此,作者提出NGO和政府在公共卫生领域良性互动的模式。     

The Politics of Central Tax Collection in China since 1994: local collusion and political control

The central leaders in China adopted a tax assignment system and centralized taxation in 1994 with the goal of increasing central tax revenues. By setting up the National Tax Bureau, the central leaders intended to leave central tax collection undisturbed by local influences. However, informal practices at the local level revealed that the local governments colluded with the central tax bureaucrats stationed in their regions at the expense of central interests. The need to develop local economies, an important task assigned to local governments, is one important reason behind local interference in central tax collection. This study finds that the central government coped with this problem by changing the incentives of the provincial party secretaries through linking central tax collection in a jurisdiction with their chance of promotion.     

西部大开发立法与民族立法衔接刍议

我国的西部大开发已进入全面开发建设阶段,以专门立法促进开发、保障开发势在必行。文章从国家立法和地方立法两个层面,探讨西部开发立法和民族立法的衔接问题,指出只有西部开发立法和民族立法衔接一致,才能保证西部开发的成功和西部民族地区和谐社会的构建。     

Complementing the local discipline inspection commissions of the CCP: empowerment of the central inspection groups

Rampant corruption among China’s party members suggests that the existing system of party discipline is too fragile to function effectively. The question now is how the central leadership reinforces party supervision over leading cadres in both government and state firms. The Chinese leadership, after some period of experimentation, has introduced new institutions, named zhongyang xunshizu (central inspection groups), to complement the existing discipline system. This article examines how these central inspection groups complement the existing groups institutionally and normatively, and explores the Chinese Communist Party’s institutional engineering efforts to maintain legitimacy, organizational integrity and sustainability. This article considers these initiatives from the view of institutional complementarity and compensation. Theoretically, the application of institutional complementarity to China’s party discipline inspection should expand the scope of analysis into China’s institutional reform of party discipline. Empirically, the central inspection groups are the least known, but perhaps most significant, direct channel for central supervision of leaders in both local government and key state-owned enterprises. By comparing the rationale and operation of disciplinary inspection commissions (DICs), this article attempts to explain how the central inspection groups complement the supervision of local DICs in terms of scope, structure and methods of control.     

农村社区公共空间研究——基于NGO参与农村社区建设的个案研究

社区建设可以有不同切入点,从不同切入点出发的社区建设效果各不相同。文章通过对两个NGO参与社区建设的个案解剖发现,其成功的根本原因是它们都建立了良好的村庄公共空间,进而促进了村庄全面协调发展。文章认为,公共空间本质上是一种稳定、信任、参与、共享和获取资源与需要的网络关系,公共空间具有信息沟通、消除矛盾、缓解紧张、形成共识、互助学习、提升能力、整合资源与促进发展的功能。     

长三角一体化进程中地方政府行为选择——以江苏为例

随着我国对外开放政策的逐步深入,长江三角洲地区成为亚太地区最具活力的经济增长极和中国融入世界经济竞争的最具实力的中心区域。但是,沪、苏、浙等地方政府行为的选择与长三角区域经济一体化的战略目标是相矛盾的。文章基于区域经济发展的视角,分析了空间统筹布局、基础设施建设、跨区域的环境综合整治、土地资源协调和产业发展协调对地方政府积极融入长三角一体化协调发展进程的作用机制和影响,并在此基础上以江苏省为例提出了地方政府所应该选择的正确行为。     

The Development of the Chinese Photovoltaic Industry: an advancing role for the central state?

This article assesses debates on state recentralization and economic rebalancing through a study of the photovoltaic (PV) industry. Based on empirical data and interviews, the authors examine different means and incentives of state support in this sector. First, in the context of the rise of PV firms (2001–2008), local government acquired a dominant role in supporting the sector. Second, against the backdrop of an industry downturn (2009–2013), this article demonstrates an advancing role of the central state in the industry. The authors thereby develop a nuanced perspective on the notions of recentralization and sectoral rebalancing. On the one hand, the government indeed utilizes its power to facilitate a rebalancing of the industry towards the domestic market. On the other, both recentralization and rebalancing efforts remain limited.     

中国古代监狱职官制度考

中国古代监狱职官制度是中国古代监狱制度的重要内容之一，其发展和完善标志着中国古代监狱制度与刑罚制度逐渐走向文明。中国古代监狱职官制度奠基于奴隶制时期，发展和完善于封建制时期。中央和地方行政官吏统辖司法、狱政大权，此乃中国古代监狱官员制度一大特点，这对后世之政治、经济、文化诸方面影响深远。     

中央与地方权力集分一般均衡的经济学模型分析

中央与地方的关系具体表现在集权与分权的关系上,如何实现中央与地方分权的均衡是一个世界性、历史性的难题,本文通过引入边际、成本、收益等经济学的概念和分析方法,试图构建中央与地方集权与分权的一般均衡模型,以期对同界学仁有所启发.     

The Political Economy of Noncompliance in China: the case of industrial energy policy

One of the greatest challenges facing China today is the central government's ability to ensure that policies are implemented effectively at the local level, particularly policies that seek to make China's economic growth model more sustainable. These policies face resistance from local authorities and enterprises that benefit from the status quo. This raises a key research question: why do some provinces more fully implement these central policies? We argue the extent of local implementation is best conceptualized as a rational balance between economic and political incentives: localities with regulatory autonomy, low regulatory capacity and alternative interests will not fully implement policies that are at odds with local economic imperatives. By examining a critical case of central policy implementation—industrial energy intensity reduction in the eleventh five-year plan—this article demonstrates that, regardless of industrial makeup or economic development, provinces that have greater regulatory autonomy for noncompliance coupled with alternative economic interests do not, on average, perform as well. Using a nested analysis approach this study illustrates this argument with both quantitative analysis and original case study evidence from fieldwork interviews.     

Transnational Environmental Movement: impacts on the green civil society in China

China has become part of the global trend of solidarity and networking among grassroots non-governmental organisations across national borders. This paper examines the social and political implications for Chinese green civil society from the activities in the country by international environmental NGOs. Following a historical, statistical and geographical profile of transnational civil society's penetration in China, it investigates closely the material and ideational benefits received by Chinese activist organisations from transnational collaboration, against the complex and often nebulous interactions between Chinese NGOs, their global partners and the government authorities. The paper argues that transnational civil society's presence and achievements in China have helped legitimise and strengthen the burgeoning civil society in the country, and this is meaningful beyond the environmental field.     

Looking for ‘New Ideas That Work’: county innovation in China’s health system reforms—the case of the New Cooperative Medical Scheme

Sub-national governments in China have substantial responsibility for policy development as well as for direct implementation of circumscribed policy options set out by higher levels of government, and much policy discourse emphasizes the importance of sub-national flexibility and creativity in policy implementation. Discourses of government innovation aim to encourage local initiative in policy formulation and solving of systemically-important policy problems, and policy experimentation/innovation are increasingly credited as important elements of the Chinese government toolbox in managing reform. Recent studies have tended to treat experimentation/innovation as systemic phenomena, and there are few analyses of how local governments respond to central ‘experimental’ policy frameworks and develop locally- or systemically-useful policy solutions. Given concerns around the capacity of local governments, this is highly relevant in understanding how locally-generated policy relates to systemic reform. The article presents a case study of a low tech and ‘second best’ reimbursement mechanism developed sub-nationally under the New Cooperative Medical Scheme, China’s rural health insurance framework, and its spread and incorporation into national policy. It argues for the importance of local government development of ‘appropriate’ policy mechanisms (jizhi) as underpinning central reforms and system adaptation.     

Fiscal Decentralization: guilty of aggravating corruption in China?

The relationship between fiscal decentralization and corruption is highly controversial but insufficiently tested with respect to China. This article empirically tests whether fiscal decentralization aggravates corruption in China's local governments. To acquire more robust results, we employ multiple corruption and fiscal decentralization measures and collect data for 31 provinces from 1998 to 2008. Fixed effects panel models estimate the impact of fiscal decentralization on corruption after controlling for gross regional product per capita, the relative wage in the public sector compared to the private sector, political leadership changes, education levels, law enforcement and the number of NGOs. Our findings suggest that China has experienced a trend towards fiscal recentralization rather than decentralization in the 2000s. We also find the moderating effect of the level of law enforcement on corruption: fiscal decentralization in local governments with strong law enforcement deters corruption but the opposite relationship is found when their law enforcement is weak. The implication of our research is that a sound legal system and political will are prerequisites for successful fiscal decentralization.     

在华外国非政府组织管理机制创新研究

改革开放以来,来华的非政府组织大量增多,对于我国的经济和社会发展都起到了积极促进作用。然而由于成立宗旨、背景以及价值取向与国内非政府组织的不同。从国家安全的角度考量,对在华外国非政府组织的管理还需区别对待。加之我国现行有关非政府组织的立法及管理机制还存在一定的滞后性,影响了在华外国非政府组织社会作用的发挥。本文认为,有必要对现行有关在华外国非政府组织的管理机制进行创新,相关制度的重构主要包括在华外国非政府组织的准入制度、公益法人认证制度等。     

我国基础教育事业单位改革最新进展及评析

改革开放以来,随着我国事业单位改革的整体推进,教育事业单位改革也不断走向深入,有力地推动了我国教育事业的发展。文章对近年来我国中央和地方政府在基础教育事业单位领域,围绕现代学校制度建设、人事制度改革等进行的一系列改革举措进行了较为全面的梳理,剖析了改革取得的成就,并重点分析了各地改革实践中存在的普遍性问题,以期为深化我国教育事业单位改革提供一定借鉴。     

Managing Government Integrity under Hierarchy: anti-corruption efforts in local China

In contrast to the early campaign style anti-corruption strategy based on nationwide uniformity, disparate local integrity initiatives and programs have proliferated in China in recent years. Local innovation in managing government integrity has been encouraged by the Center. Drawing on the author's fieldwork in Guangdong, this article investigates the rationale behind such development and addresses the question of why the central leadership has become receptive to local initiatives in cadre management, an area where political conformity was deemed necessary by an authoritarian regime. It suggests that the strategic adjustment testifies to the institutional failure of the earlier anti-corruption regime that manifested in, inter alia, an acute agency loss problem. The emerging approach to integrity management nevertheless has paradoxical institutional roots. It indicates some new thinking by the central authorities on holding local governments responsible for integrity management. Just as clearly, the adjustment is also driven by the Center's concern about losing control and its desire to ‘manage’ government integrity under hierarchy.     

美国1787年宪法背景探析

美国1787年宪法是在特殊的历史条件下形成的,文章从人的特定性与发展历程的特定性两个方面分析了该宪法产生的独特背景.从人的特定性上看,它反映了清教徒的现实主义精神,又体现了制宪者的阶级属性,即从理想主义到现实主义的蜕变;从《独立宣言》制定者到《宪法》制定者历史地位的迁移;实现自由的向往者向自由的实践者飞跃等几个方面进行分析.同时也对发展历程的特定性从中央与地方及中央政府各部分之间的关系方面进行了探讨.     

循环经济发展中的公众参与:问题与思考

循环经济的发展离不开公众的参与。但是,我国公众在参与意识和参与理念上与循环经济发展的要求仍有很大差距;在参与主体上相对单一,民间环保组织参与不足;在参与内容上过于狭窄,公众参与权有限;在参与方式和参与途径上亦难以有效满足公众参与的要求。因此,亟需加强对公众参与意识和环境保护理念的培养和教育,促进民间环保组织的发展并充分发挥其在公众参与中的积极作用,扩大公众参与的权利,并不断拓展公众参与的方式与途径。